Although Lilith Fair was the most successful tour of last summer,
tour organizer Sarah McLachlan says she decided to organize a
second tour simply because she “had fun.” Fun, and a sense of
camaraderie were the general themes at the press conference to
announce this year’s Lilith lineup and itinerary. Joining McLachlan
at Los Angeles’ El Rey Theater were Lilith vets Shawn Colvin, Paula
Cole, Meredith Brooks and Lisa Loeb, as well as rookies Liz Phair,
Tracey Bonham, Rebekah, and Bonnie Raitt (who described herself as
the tour’s “den mother,” adding that she was curious to see if the
performers’ menstrual cycles would synchronize).

This year, the tour will play fifty-seven dates in forty-seven
cities, starting June 19 in Portland, Ore. and finishing up in
Vancouver, BC on August 31. The tour will visit twenty new cities,
and care was taken to ensure that no acts would return to the
cities they played last year. Again, McLachlan will be the only act
playing the entire tour.

Responding to criticisms that last year’s lineup tended toward
folky singer/songwriters, the acts booked this year are more
eclectic, including rappers Queen Latifah and Missy Elliott, trip
hop acts Morcheeba and Mono, R&B diva Erykah Badu and New York
hipsters Luscious Jackson. The tour will also include Natalie
Merchant, the Indigo Girls, Sinead O’Connor, Me’shell N’degeocello,
Lauryn Hill, Beth Orton and Mary Lou Lord. McLachlan expressed some
regret that for the second year, Lilith was unable to book Joni
Mitchell. “She’s an illusive, wonderful, Canadian artist,” she
said. “The invitation is always open.”

The process of choosing the acts, McLachlan explained, was
basically the same as last year: she asked the bands she wanted to
hear. But after the success of last year, “it was easier to get
people to take our calls; we had a track record of success.” That
track record also meant that Lilith is booked into some bigger
venues this year — in Los Angeles, the tour is booked into the
100,000-seat Rose Bowl, as opposed to 15,000-capacity Irvine
Meadows Amphitheater. McLachlan isn’t worried about the larger
audiences: “the intimacy of Lilith comes from the interaction
between the artist and the audience, not the size of the
venue.”

There will be more interaction between the acts this year,
McLachlan promised. “I was much too shy last year,” she said, “but
this year, I’m going to be knocking on dressing room doors, getting
people together.”

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Asked to comment on the opposite trajectories of Lilith and
Lollapalooza, McLachlan said she felt that the other festival was
smart to take a year off. “Sometimes it’s best to take a breath and
reconsider.” As for Lilith’s future, she said that while it’s hard
for her to schedule a week ahead, she and her manager, Marty
Diamond, started Lilith with a three-year plan. “We’re committed
until 1999; we’ll talk about the future after that.”

As it did last year, Lilith Fair will present acts on three
stages; but this year there is a twist. Talent shows, sponsored by
Levi’s, will be held in fourteen cities with the winner appearing
on the Village Stage in their hometown. “Finding unknown talent is
always a joy, and part of Lilith’s mission,” McLachlan said. It’s a
philosophy that also influenced the choices on the double-disc
Lilith live album. “The main stage acts are necessary for sales,”
she said, “but it was just as important to me to have acts from the
Second and Village stages on the album.”